Another royal fraudster arrested

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In a case that adds to a long list of royal fraudsters, Prachatai reports that 48 year-old Wandi Laikhlaidok has been arrested by police in Nakhon Sawan.

Wandi is alleged to have posed as a nurse working on royal projects. This claim was used to defraud villagers in the province but also in north, northeast and central provinces, presumably over a considerable period.

She was arrested on 11 November 2016 and alleged to have committed “defamation, fraud and lèse majesté.”

The number of such lese majeste cases is now in the dozens, suggesting massive fraud, across the country. Cases have involved claims about royal projects, the late king, Prince Vajiralongkorn and Princess Sirindhorn.

The use of lese majeste in some of these cases is obviously political, such as when those close to a royal – such as the Suwadee family – are locked up. In Wandi’s case, she seems to be a simple grifter and the lese majeste charge only makes sense in a neo-feudal royalist regime.